Server side adaptive bit rate reporting

ABSTRACT

A server receives metadata associated with an advertisement in a transport signal stream from an encoder, the metadata identifying a specified frame of the transport signal stream corresponding to a point in time of the advertisement. The server instructs an encoder, by a server, to insert a marker into the specified frame of the transport signal stream, the marker identifying the point in time of the advertisement. The server receives data from a smart appliance. The server detects the marker in the data. The server identifies the marker as the specified frame of the transport signal stream played by the smart appliance. The server maps the marker to the identified point in time of the advertisement.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/875,364 filed May 2, 2013, the disclosureof which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to service provider videonetworks, and more particularly to a method and system for accuratelyreporting a percentage of an advertisement playable or that has beenplayed by a smart appliance.

BACKGROUND

Traditionally, programming of broadcast and cable television and radio,including content (i.e., the video or audio program) and (the placementof) ads in a video or audio signal stream, has followed a linear model.Programming may be linear in the sense that a program begins and isstreamed and in progress when a user chooses to view entertainmentcontent. FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional linear or video-on-demand(VOD) model for advertisement placement. Entertainment content 2, whenprocessed as a digital data stream over a cable network, may be dividedinto a number of time intervals. The time intervals 4 include timereserved for a viewed program (content), such as “Golden Girls.” Theintervals 6, 8, 9 represent sections of time reserved for advertisementsor “avails.” These “avails” may be viewed as advertisement placementopportunities. As used herein, a “placement opportunity” was traditionalcalled an avail and is sometimes referred to as a slot (spots intoslots). A placement opportunity (PO) is a construct that represents anopportunity to insert an advertisement or entertainment content, anddefines the rules for that opportunity, such as its duration,interactivity, ownership, and technical constraints.

As used herein, the term “binding” refers to an identification ofsignals and content within a placement opportunity (PO). PO's arefrequently created for broad amounts of content that are not yetpublished (i.e., any show on TNT network in the evening). When the showairs and a signal is detected, the signal is bound to the relevant PO'sfor that show.

As used herein, the term “impression” refers to a showing of anadvertisement to a single viewer. For example, if a 30 second spot isplaced in 50,000 video-on-demand (VOD) streams and it is known that30,000 of the streams actually played the ad, then 30,000 impressions ofthat advertisement have been generated.

As used herein, a “status notification” may be, but is not limited to,an HTTP call from a VOD server with a unique ID that was created when adecision was delivered.

As used herein, the term “break” refers to one or more spaces in astream between entertainment content. For example, a group of 4consecutive 30 second spots between 2 segments of “Two and a Half Men”may be considered as a single break. One or more advertisements may filla break. As used herein, the term advertisement may refer to a oneadvertisement or a plurality of advertisements collectively inserted orinsertable into an individual break.

As used herein, an estimated starting location of a break in a signalstream is referred to as a signal point. In the context of advertisementplacement, these signal points may be referred to as advertisementsignal points.

In non-linear systems, such as Video-on-Demand (VOD), the intervals 6,8, 9 may take on new meanings. The interval 6 is called a pre-roll,i.e., the space in a video that occurs immediately after a user clicksto start a VOD video. The interval 9 is known as a post-roll, i.e., thespace after all of the VOD video segments have finished playing. Theintervals 8 may be mid-rolls, i.e., mini-breaks in the middle of a VODvideo, or may be interstitials, i.e., pod-like locations betweenconsecutive VOD video segments. VOD advertisement placementopportunities may appear based on space, time, content, and user contextand may be highly non-linear (i.e., the user chooses to initiate theplaying of content and in response, the content starts). All of theintervals 6, 8, 9 in such play lists are ripe for the insertion ofadvertisements, i.e., advertisement placement opportunities.

FIG. 2 depicts a configuration of a conventional Internet-based cabletelevision infrastructure 200 for performing advertising placementdecisions in signal streams. On TV, the advertising network was formerlythe national network, the cable network, or the cable operator. However,unlike the Internet, where browsers access/display content and then areseparately “referred” to a shared advertisement network, theInternet-based cable television infrastructure 200 selects and assemblesboth the advertisement and the content together and delivers thecombined result to customers' “smart appliances” 202 a-202 n (e.g.,Internet ready televisions, radios, smartphones, tablets, PCs, etc.).

Recently, smart appliances 202 a-202 n, such as Internet-readytelevisions, have become capable of receiving content from Internetstreaming services, such as Netflix movies, Pandora streaming radio,etc., over WiFi or direct Ethernet connections. When a user clicks on anicon for an “app” that appears on the television set corresponding toone of these services, the content is streamed to the smart appliance202 a-202 n from a content delivery network (CDN) 204 directly to theapplication running in the smart appliance 202 a-202 n without the needfor a set top box.

A set top box may be configured to decode an analog representation oftwo states of a digital signal, as is known in the art, that iscontinuously streamed and pushed to the set top box through a broadcastfacility over a coaxial or fiber optic cable and the set top box tunesto that channel and displays the content. When a user watchesInternet-delivered program content, a browser within the smart appliance202 a-202 n fetching video in predetermined time chunks—generally two,sometimes three, sometimes ten second chunks. The fetched chunks ofvideo are seamlessly stitched together dynamically in the applicationsoftware of the smart appliance 202 a-202 n and then displayed so as toappear as a smooth video on the smart appliance 202 a-202 n.

A Multiple System/Service Operator (MSO—a cable TV organization thatowns more than one cable system and may prove broadband Internetservice) may wish to rebroadcast video streams on smart appliances.Unfortunately, every connected device, including smart appliances, needsto obtain video in the format that it can consume. Apple, Microsoft,Adobe, etc., have very specific and incompatible formats. To overcomethis problem, each of these companies has constructed facilities calledcontent delivery networks (CDN) 204 where a “set top box” for eachchannel is configured to receive broadcasts from satellites.

A signal stream received by a “set top box” from upstream devices 206 isfed to an encoder 208 to transform the signal stream to a transportsignal stream of one or more bit rates and/or formats and a packager 210to fragment the transport signal stream into the predetermined (e.g., 2second) segments of data. The encoder 208 may convert the signal streamto one or more of a plurality of formats (e.g., H264, MPEG2, MPEG4,etc.) and resolutions (e.g., standard definition at 640p, or highdefinition at, for example 720p, 1080i, 1080p, etc.). A distincttransport signal stream may be provided to the packager 210 in each ofthe plurality of formats and resolutions. The packager 210 may dividethe transport signal streams into segments representing intervals oftime or “chunks” of video, audio, etc. (e.g., between 2 and about 10second intervals) according to a standard format associated with aspecific vendor (e.g., Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, etc.). These segmentsare then stored at the CDN 204 on server farms located physically closeto where the content is to be delivered.

To identify a particular channel data stream or “session”, includingtimes when a program has ended and before the next program begins, i.e.,a placement opportunity, a cue-tone is inserted in the channel datastream a predetermined time before the next program begins. The cue-tonemay be an instance of an SCTE-35 packet.

An observer 210, which may be the transcoder 208, informs placementopportunity information service (POIS) 211 of the arrival of the cuetone for subsequent placement of one or more advertisements into thechannel data stream by an advertisement service (ADS) 214. If the ADS214 is known to the POIS 211, then the POIS 211 notifies the ADS 214 ofthe cue tone notification. The advertisement service 214, in turn, iswaiting for the subsequent arrival of requests from a CDN 204 to placeadvertisements into breaks (i.e. one or more of the segments) in thechannel data stream (session).

MSOs, national networks, and local networks prefer to know whether anadvertisement has been played and watched by a subscriber. Moreparticularly, advertisers may be compensated by the MSOs and networksbased on the proportion of an advertisement that has been watched by asubscriber. Compensation has been traditionally based on the number ofquartiles of an advertisement that has been watched: 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%,to 100%. Equipment manufacturers have traditionally provided thisfeature on one of two ways: by building intelligence into each smartappliance (e.g., 202 a), or by building intelligence into a reportingnetwork, e.g., a cloud computing network, while not altering exitingsmart appliances 202 a-202 n. Both techniques may employ what is knownas a manifest file. As used herein, a manifest file, a manifest, or asession manifest, refers to a listing or index of what is contained ineach of the segments of a session maintained by the CDN 204. Moreparticularly, the session manifest may include a list of URLs whichpoint to each of the segments and notes the type of segment: content oradvertisement.

When intelligence is built into a smart appliance (e.g., 202 a), thesmart appliance 202 a may (1) maintain a copy of the session manifest,(2) perform the function of splicing an advertisement into a placementopportunity that was formerly performed by the ADS 214, (3) mark thesession manifest for each segment played, and (4) report a proportion ofa session (e.g., the number of segments) played to the MSO or network.

MSOs and networks, however, may prefer to employ any manufacturer'ssmart appliance (e.g., 202 a). Both the MSOs and the networks have beenmoving toward providing their own viewing experience by providing onlyapplications “apps” to a subscriber's equipment without altering theequipment.

When intelligence is built into the network, corresponding reportingnetworks may need to maintain a separate manifest for each viewersession. Still further, the reporting network needs to test and operatetheir reporting hardware and software with a multiplicity of transportsignal stream encoding formats and resolutions, vendor packagingstandards, and vendor-specific smart appliance software and hardware.Maintaining a manifest for each viewer, according to each encodingformat and resolution, packaging format, and vendor-specific smartappliance software and hardware may require processing power on theorder of hundreds of thousands of threads of execution, translating to aneed to maintain and operate a large number of multi-threaded computers.Moreover, even if a thread indicates that an advertisement wasdownloaded, it does not mean that the advertisement was played. Theadvertisement may be buffered and flushed before viewing.

Ideally, MSOs and networks prefer to have flexibility in working withplayers and reporting networks of any type.

Accordingly, what would be desirable, but has not yet been provided, isa method and system for accurately reporting a percentage of eachadvertisement viewed by a subscriber during a viewing session withoutsignificantly modifying existing smart appliances or reporting networks.

SUMMARY

The above-described problems are addressed and a technical solution isachieved in the art by providing a method and system for reporting apercentage of an advertisement playable by a smart appliance. A serverreceives metadata associated with an advertisement in a transport signalstream from an encoder. The server determines a length of theadvertisement and a frame rate of the transport signal stream based onthe received metadata. The server divides the advertisement into atleast one segment based on the length and the frame rate. The serverinstructs the encoder to insert at least one marker into at least oneframe of the advertisement corresponding to the at least one segment ofthe transport signal stream to create at least one marked segment.

In another example, the length of the advertisement and a frame rate ofthe transport signal stream may be determined based on an analysis ofthe in-band transport signal stream itself rather than from out-of-bandmetadata associated with the transport signal stream.

In an example, at least one marked segment may be indicative of apercentage of the advertisement playable by a smart appliance. Thelength of the advertisement may be representative of a difference intime between a last frame of the advertisement and a first frame of theadvertisement. A length of the at least one segment may be based on theframe rate. The number of segments may be based on quartiles ofpercentage of an advertisement playable by the smart appliance.

In an embodiment, the server may instruct the encoder to insert the atleast one marker (e.g., UUID1) on a per frame, per segment, persub-segment, or per plurality of segments basis. The server may instructthe encoder to insert a different value for the at least one marker intoeach segment of the at least one segment. A specific segment may beproportional to a percentage of the advertisement playable by the smartappliance.

In an embodiment, when the frame rate changes during transmission of theadvertisement, the server may instruct the encoder to insert at leastone different marker into at least one frame of the advertisementcorresponding to the at least one segment. The server may instruct theencoder to insert the at least one marker into at least one of a firstframe of a percentile, a last frame of a percentile, multiple but notall frame of a percentile, or throughout a percentile.

In one embodiment, the server may group a plurality of markersassociated with a specific percentile but of different frame rates foreach transport stream together for identifying a single percentileplayed.

In one example, the marker may be an ID3 tag. In an example, the ID3 tagmay comprise a unique identifier indicative of a percentage of anadvertisement playable by the smart appliance. In an example, the uniqueidentifier may be a universal unique identifier. The server may instructthe encoder to insert the ID3 tag into a data track or fundamental trackof the transport signal stream. In another example, the marker may beencoded into XML metadata in a sparse track of the transport signalstream.

In an embodiment, the at least one ID3 tag (marker) assigned to a lastsegment may be operable to disable fast forwarding in the smartappliance. The at least one ID3 tag (marker) assigned to a first segmentmay be operable to enable fast forwarding in the smart appliance.

In an embodiment, the server receives data from a smart appliance. Theserver detects a marker in the data corresponding to a segment of anadvertisement of a session played by the smart appliance. The servermaps the marker to a percentage played of the advertisement in thesession by the smart appliance. The server reports the percentage playedof the advertisement in the session by the smart appliance to at leastone tracking element.

In one embodiment, the received data may be in the form of a universalresource locator (URL). The URL may comprise at least one of a universalunique identifier indicative of the percentage of the advertisementbreak played, a device identifier or MAC identifier indicative of aspecific session, and a time stamp corresponding to a synchronizedbroadcast time.

In an embodiment, the detected marker may differ on a per frame, persegment, per sub-segment, or per plurality of segments basis. Thedetected marker may differ on a per percentile basis of theadvertisement break played by the smart appliance. The detected markermay differ on a per frame rate or session resolution of theadvertisement played by the smart appliance. The marker may be detectedfor one of a first frame of a percentile, a last frame of a percentile,multiple but not all frame of a percentile, or throughout a percentile.The detected marker may be indicative of a frame rate or resolution of asegment of the session.

In an embodiment, the marker may comprise an ID3 tag. The ID3 tag maycomprise a unique identifier indicative of the percentage of anadvertisement playable by a smart appliance. The unique identifier maybe a universal unique identifier (UUID).

In an embodiment, when the detected marker is indicative of a frame rateor resolution of a segment of the session, the server may map thedetected marker to a same percentage played but of a different framerate or session resolution. The server may group a plurality of markersassociated with a specific percentile but of different frame ratescorresponding to the session together for identifying a singlepercentile played.

The tracking element may be associated with a local or nationalprogrammer or network, an MSO, a local or national advertiser, a thirdparty verification system, or one or more advertisement decisionservices.

In an embodiment, the server may keep track of the data (e.g., thepercentage played of each session) in a database for later retrieval inorder to permit an owner of the server to charge an organizationassociated with the tracking element a fee based on the percentage of asession played. In an embodiment, the adaptive bit rate viewer maydirectly keep track of tracking fees to be charged to an organizationassociated with the tracking element based on the percentage of anadvertisement played.

In one embodiment, the server may transmit code to the smart applianceto detect the marker and to provide the marker to the server in responseto the smart appliance detecting the marker. To accomplish this, theserver may instruct an advertisement decision service or contentdelivery network to insert the code into at least a first segment of asession.

In another example, the MSO may distribute the code document to themanufacturers of the smart appliances to permit a manufacturer toincorporate the code into the overall executable code of the smartappliances. Code for enabling or disabling fast forwarding may beincluded in the code document.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be more readily understood from the detaileddescription of exemplary embodiments presented below considered inconjunction with the attached drawings, of which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional linear or video-on-demand model foradvertisement placement;

FIG. 2 depicts a configuration of a conventional Internet-based cabletelevision infrastructure for performing advertising placement decisionsin signal streams;

FIG. 3 depicts a configuration of a system for reporting a percentage ofan advertisement that is playable or that has been played by a smartappliance;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the use of an ID3 tag as metadatato be incorporated into corresponding data tracks of a transport signalstream for providing markers for indicating portions of an advertisementplayed corresponding to each of the segments in a session;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a portion of an advertisementdivided into a plurality of play time intervals;

FIGS. 6A-6B are block diagrams illustrating a portion of a transportsignal stream representing an advertisement break and surroundingcontent divided into a plurality of play time intervals or chunksformatted according to different vendors format standards output by thepackager;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a method forinserting unique ID3 tags into a transport signal stream that representsan advertisement of a known length but may have different resolutions orframe rates;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method forenabling reporting of a percentage of an advertisement playable by asmart appliance;

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method forreporting a percentage of an advertisement that has been played by asmart appliance; and

FIG. 10 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine in theexemplary form of a computer system within which a set of instructions,for causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, may be executed.

It is to be understood that the attached drawings are for purposes ofillustrating the concepts of the invention and may not be to scale.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Certain embodiments of the present disclosure are compatible with andmake use of elements defined according to the SCTE-130 standard. TheSCTE-130 standard provides a standardized and extensible message basedinterface defining a minimal set of cooperating logical servicesnecessary to communicate placement opportunities, placement decisions,and placement related event data necessary for accountabilitymeasurements. SCTE-130 defines an extensible framework of interfacesamong a set of advertising system logical services. The SCTE-130standard encompasses: a minimal set of cooperative logical servicesneeded to implement advanced addressable advertising systems; the coredata types and extensible message framework forming a vocabulary neededto communicate among the defined logical services; the interfaces amongthese logical services using the core data types and messages; and,mechanisms for extensibility that allow innovation while preservingbackward compatibility with already deployed systems—thereby reducingthe complexity for incorporating new features within the standard.

The normative parts of the SCTE-130 standard define mechanisms forintegrating systems implementing features such as VOD-based advertising,linear-based advertising, enhanced advertising capabilities such asadvertisement rotation groups (rotation groups refer to placementopportunities that run in rotation so that the same advertisement is notviewed again immediately), subscriber-based addressing for advertisingor content tailoring, extension points for more advanced advertising oraddressing features, logical services that are implemented as one ormore physical systems created by the same vendor, deployment of alogical service that may simultaneously include systems from one or morevendors, and an implementation that may incorporate one or more of thedefined logical services and interfaces

The SCTE-130 standard defines a set of logical services comprising anadvanced advertising system. Each logical service may itself be acomplex system. In an embodiment, one or more of the following logicalservices may be used by or interact with certain embodiments of thepresent invention.

An Advertisement Management Service (ADM) defines messages in support ofadvertisement insertion activities. The primary consumer of thesemessages is an Advertisement Decision Service (ADS). The messageinterfaces exposed by an ADM permit both pre-configured advertisementdecisions as well as real-time fulfillment models. An ADM implementationmay incorporate some simple advertisement selection rules (e.g.,advertisement rotations) but more complex advertisement decisions arethe responsibility of an ADS.

An Advertisement Decision Service (ADS) determines how advertisingcontent is combined with non-advertising (i.e., entertainment) contentassets. The decisions made by an ADS may be straightforward (i.e.,specific advertisement content placed at a specific time in a specificasset) or arbitrarily complex (based on subscriber data, advertisingzone, etc.).

A Content Information Service (CIS) manages metadata describing assets(both advertising assets and non-advertising assets) available to theother SCTE-130 logical services. The CIS provides query and notificationinterfaces to the other logical services. The query service is availableon an ad-hoc basis and may be called by any other logical service at anytime without any prior registration. Queries specify values or patternsto be sought in the query message metadata and the specified matchinginformation (or an error indication) is returned in a response message.

The Content Information Service (CIS) is a storage and distributionengine. It stores metadata about entertainment and advertising assets;provides notifications to registered clients when metadata is modified;registers, receives and processes notifications from other CIS services;and supports real-time metadata queries. The CIS permits an AdvertisingManager (ADM) and/or Advertisement Decision Service (ADS) to retrieveand utilize content metadata in their advanced advertising decisionprocessing.

A Placement Opportunity Information Service (POIS) may hold, maintain,and retain descriptions of placement opportunities. The POIS may alsocontain attributes and constraints for each placement opportunity,platform compliance, rights, and policies of the content in which theplacement opportunity exists. These placement opportunities are contentspecific, therefore attributes and constraints may vary by network,geographic region, or other content distribution dimension.

The POIS is a Placement Opportunity (PO) storage and inventory executionengine. It stores PO metadata and statistics; provides notifications toregistered clients when PO metadata is modified; registers, receives andprocesses notifications from other POIS services; and supports real-timePO metadata queries. Through the POIS appliance, an Advertising Manager(ADM) and/or Advertisement Decision Service (ADS) can retrieve andutilize placement opportunity metadata in their advanced advertisingdecision making.

The Subscriber Information Service (SIS) manages per-subscriberinformation relevant to advertisement placement decisions. The SISprovides a mapping between subscriber or client identifiers, such as aMAC address, serial number, etc., and subscriber or audience attributes,e.g., age, sex, location of a subscriber.

The term “computer” or “computer platform” is intended to include anydata processing device, such as a desktop computer, a laptop computer, atablet computer, a mainframe computer, a server, a handheld device, adigital signal processor (DSP), an embedded processor (an example ofwhich is described in connection with FIG. 10), or any other device ableto process data. The computer/computer platform is configured to includeone or more microprocessors communicatively connected to one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media and one or more networks. Theterm “communicatively connected” is intended to include any type ofconnection, whether wired or wireless, in which data may becommunicated. The term “communicatively connected” is intended toinclude, but not limited to, a connection between devices and/orprograms within a single computer or between devices and/or separatecomputers over a network. The term “network” is intended to include, butnot limited to, OTA (over-the-air transmission, ATSC, DVB-T),packet-switched networks (TCP/IP, e.g., the Internet), satellite(microwave, MPEG transport stream or IP), direct broadcast satellite,analog cable transmission systems (RF), and digital video transmissionsystems (ATSC, HD-SDI, HDMI, DVI, VGA), etc.

FIG. 3 depicts a configuration of a system 300 for reporting apercentage of an advertisement playable by a smart appliance. The system300 may be executed on a server 302, interconnected by one or morenetworks (not shown) and communicatively connected to one or more ADSs304 a-304 n. The ADSs 304 a-304 n are configured to place advertisementsinto advertisement breaks in subscriber data streams at the request of aCDN 306 for delivery to one or more smart appliances 308 a-308 n.

The server 302 may be associated with or implement a CIS 310 forreceiving one or more source signal streams (channels) originating fromupstream devices 312 and corresponding cue-tones (i.e., instances ofSCTE-35 packets) from an observer 314, which may be incorporated withinan encoder 316. The CIS 310 is also configured to identify metadata fromthe one or more source signal streams received from the encoder 316 andto deliver the identified metadata to the server 302. The receivedmetadata may identify each of a plurality of formats (e.g., H264, MPEG2,MPEG4, etc.) and resolutions (e.g., standard definition at 640p, or highdefinition at, for example 720p, 1080i, 1080p, etc., that includes aframe rate of the transport signal stream) for each of the one or moretransport signal streams output by the encoder 316 and corresponding toa respective source signal stream (channel). As described above, theencoder 316 is configured to feed each of the transport signal streamsto a packager 317. The packager 317 is configured to further format theone or more transport signal streams and divide the streams intosegments representing intervals of time or “chunks” of IP video, audio,etc., (e.g., between 2 and about 10 second intervals) according to astandard format associated with a specific vendor (e.g., Microsoft,Apple, Adobe, etc.). The packager 317 is configured to deliver IP video,audio, etc., in predetermined “chunks” to the CDN 306 as describedabove. The server 302 is also configured to extract metadata from thepackager 317 that a length in terms of time of a segment or chunk size.

The server 302 is configured to pre-allocate a corresponding number ofunconfirmed placement opportunities (POs) without signals and to bindthe source signal stream to a plurality of premade, but unconfirmedplacement opportunities. Part of the identified metadata includes achannel identifier associated with a corresponding source signal stream.The CIS 310 is configured to return a globally unique value, a UUID,referred to as a signal identifier or signal ID that uniquely identifiesa placement opportunity as a confirmed placement and its startinglocation within the end-to-end operational system 300. The CIS 310 isfurther configured to insert the signal ID and the channel identifierinto the metadata of the source signal stream using the appropriatein-band carriage format.

In one embodiment, a POIS 318 may be implemented by the server 302. ThePOIS 318 is configured to “confirm” unconfirmed placement opportunitiesby identifying temporal starting and ending locations (and thus abeginning and end point in terms of time) of the unconfirmed placementopportunities (i.e., including advertisement signal point(s)) relativeto both the content stream and a wall clock.

In one embodiment, the POIS 318 may be configured to initiate a workflowin an instance of an SCTE 130 Advertisement Management Service 320, orADM 320, associated with the server 302 to identify a listrepresentative of a number of transport streams (e.g., a number ofsessions) having the channel identifier. To identify the list, the ADM320 places a call each to an external session manager 322. The ADM 320transmits the channel identifier to the session manager 322, whichprovides the ADM 320 with a list of client identities indicative of anumber of recipients currently viewing a channel corresponding to thechannel identifier. The ADM 320 is also configured to obtain a pluralityof advertisements corresponding to the list correlated to the channelidentifier from one or more of the ADSs 304 a-304 n. The ADM 320receives from the ADSs 304 a-304 n the plurality of advertisementstargeted to the list representative of the plurality of transportstreams (sessions).

The ADM 320 uses the unique signal ID plus a set of locally configuredor learned targeting criteria to initiate a unique set of advertisementdecision requests. The advertisement decision requests evolve intotargeted advertisement decision requests to the appropriate decisionowners (i.e., the ADSs 304 a-304 n) and the results are a set ofadvertisement placement decisions correlating to the placementopportunities generated as a result of signal confirmation.

The encoder 316 is configured to receive instructions from an adaptivebit rate viewer (module) 324 of the server 302 to insert one or moremarkers into each transport signal stream provided by the encoder 316associated with a channel identifier based on the received metadata(i.e., the transport signal stream frame rate and resolution) providedby the CIS 310 and the beginning and end point of an advertisement breakprovided by the POIS 318. The adaptive bit rate viewer 324 is configuredto determine a length of the advertisement and a frame rate of thetransport signal stream based on the received metadata from the CIS 310and the POIS 318. The adaptive bit rate viewer 324 is configured todivide the advertisement into at least one segment based on the lengthand the frame rate. The adaptive bit rate viewer 324 is configuredinstructs the encoder 316 to insert at least one marker into at leastone frame of the advertisement corresponding to the at least one segmentof the transport signal stream to create at least one marked segment.

In another example, the length of the advertisement and a frame rate ofthe transport signal stream may be determined based on an analysis ofthe in-band transport signal stream itself rather than from out-of-bandmetadata associated with the transport signal stream.

In one example, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may be incorporatedwithin the code of the ADM 320. In another example, the ADM may beincorporated separately as an independent module of the code of theserver 302 and may cooperate in conjunction with the ADM 320.

In one example, a marker may be an ID3 tag. An ID3 tag hasconventionally referred to a metadata container used in conjunction withthe MP3 audio file format. An ID3 tag permits information such as thetitle, artist, album, track number, and other information about a fileto be stored in the file itself. In the present context, an ID3 tag maybe adapted to include a unique identifier indicative of a percentage ofan advertisement that has been played by a smart appliance (e.g., 308a). In an example, the unique identifier may be a universal uniqueidentifier (UUID).

FIG. 4 is a block diagram 400 illustrating the use of an ID3 tag asmetadata to be incorporated into corresponding data tracks 404 a-404 nof a transport signal stream 402 for providing markers for indicatingportions of an advertisement played corresponding to each of thesegments 406 a-406 n (e.g., 2 second “chunks”) in a session. Thetransport signal stream 402 may comprise segments (e.g., 406 a, 406 b)corresponding to content and segments (e.g., 406 c-406 n) correspondingto an advertisement in the session. Each of the ID3 tags 408 a-408 n maycomprise a unique identifier (e.g., UUID1, UUID2, UUIDn) that indicatesa portion of the advertisement played by a smart appliance (e.g., 308a). In an example, to identify a specific quartile played, the adaptivebit rate viewer 324 may assign a different value for the uniqueidentifier (e.g., a different UUID).

FIG. 5 is a block diagram 500 illustrating a portion of an advertisement502 divided into a plurality of play time intervals 504 a-504 n. In theexample shown, the number of play time intervals 504 a-504 n correspondsto a number of quartiles 504 a-504 n of an advertisement to be played bya smart appliance (e.g., 308 a) and marked at intervals of 0%, 25%, 50%,75%, and 100%. In other examples, the play time intervals may berepresentative of smaller or larger percentage of an advertisementplayed. UUID1-UUID5 may be associated with each of the quartiles 504a-504 n and correspond to time intervals 506 a-506 n from the beginningto the end of an advertisement to be played (e.g., 00:00:00 seconds to00:00:30 seconds).

In an example, the unique identifier assigned to a last play timeinterval (quartile) 504 n (e.g., 75%-100% played) may be operable todisable fast forwarding in the smart appliance (e.g., 308 a).Conversely, the unique identifier assigned to a first play time interval(quartile) 504 a (e.g., 0% played) may be operable to enable fastforwarding in the smart appliance (e.g., 308 a).

FIGS. 6A-6B are block diagrams 600A-600B illustrating a portion of atransport signal stream representing an advertisement 602 a-602 binserted into a corresponding advertisement break 603 a-603 b andsurrounding content 604 a-604 b divided into a plurality of play timeintervals or chunks 606 a-606 l formatted according to different vendorsformat standards 608 a-608 b output by the packager 317. In one exampleshown in FIG. 6A, the content 604 a and the advertisement 602 a may bedivided by the packager 317 into, for example, ten second chunks. If abeginning of a chunk 606 b coincides with a beginning of theadvertisement 602 a, but the advertisement 602 a is only 28.9 secondlong, then according to one vendor format 608 a, the advertisement 602 acomprises two, ten second chunks 606 b, 606 c and an 8.9 second chunk606 d. The end of the chunk 606 d coincides with one end of theadvertisement break 603 a. A chunk of content 606 e immediately followsthe chunk 606 d.

In another example shown in FIG. 6B, according to another vendor format608 b, there are three, ten second chunks 606 h, 606 i, 606 j ofadvertisement 602 b with a portion of the third and final chunk 606 j(1.1 second) left blank, and further followed by the next chunk ofcontent 606 k. The end of the chunk 606 j does not coincide with one endof the advertisement break 603 b.

If a smart appliance (e.g., 308 a) switches between differentresolutions or bit rates during the playing of the advertisement 602 a,602 b, then the number of frames per second in a chunk also changes.While it may be possible to identify the beginning 0% played point byidentifying the first frame of the advertisement 602 a, 602 b, and the100% played point as the last from of the advertisement 602 a, 602 b,the quartile points for 25%, 50%, and 75% played become difficult toidentify.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a method 700for inserting unique ID3 tags into a transport signal stream 702 thatrepresents an advertisement 704 of a known length (e.g., 28.9 seconds)placed within an advertisement break 705 but may have differentresolutions (e.g., SD, 720p, 1080p) or frame rates (e.g., 29 fps, 38fps, 60 fps, respectively). The advertisement 704 within theadvertisement break 705 of the transport signal stream 702 begins at atime 706 (i.e., located at a first frame 708 representing 0% played) andends at a time 710 (i.e., located at a last frame 712, representing 100%played). The adaptive bit rate viewer 324 is configured to receive anindication of the bit rate of the transport signal stream 702 from theCIS 310 and an identification of the first frame 708 and the last frame712 of the advertisement 704 from the POIS 318. The adaptive bit rateviewer is configured to instruct the encoder 316 to insert an ID3 tag714 a into a data track of the first frame 708 representing 0% played ofthe advertisement 704. The adaptive bit rate viewer 324 is configured toinstruct the encoder 316 to insert a unique ID3 tag 714 e into a datatrack of the last frame 712 representing 100% played of theadvertisement 704. By determining the frame rate of the transport signalstream 702 based on metadata extracted by the CIS 310 from the encoder316, and calculating a length of advertisement 704 of the transportsignal stream 702 based on the first frame 708 and the last frame 712identified by the POIS 318, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 isconfigured to determine frames 716 a, 716 b, 716 c of the transportsignal stream 702 corresponding to the 25%, 50%, and 75% percentile ofan advertisement 704 to be played. In one embodiment, the adaptive bitrate viewer 324 may be configured to instruct the encoder 316 to insertone each of unique ID3 tags 714 b, 714 c, 714 d corresponding to the25%, 50%, and 75% percentiles of ad played in corresponding data tracksof the frames 716 a, 716 cb, 716 c of the of the transport signal stream702. In one embodiment, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may beconfigured to instruct the encoder 316 to inserts the ID3 tags 714 a-712e in only the first frame of a percentile (e.g., 50% or 716 b), the lastframe of a percentile, throughout a percentile, or a combination of anyof the above. A person skilled in the art will realize that the method700 may apply to a plurality of individual advertisements insertedwithin the advertisement break 705 of the transport signal stream 702.

While there may be a total of, for example, fifteen (15) uniqueidentifiers or UUIDs, five for each transport stream resolution rate,the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may be configured to groupcorresponding unique identifiers associated with a specific percentilebut of different frame rates for each transport stream together toidentify a single percentile played (e.g., UUID1, UUID2, UUID3 for 0%played percentile, UUID4, UUID5, UUID6 for the 25% percentile played,etc.).

In an embodiment, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may be furtherconfigured to report a percentage of an advertisement played by a smartappliance (e.g., 308 a). The adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may beconfigured to receive data from a smart appliance (e.g., 308 a). Theadaptive bit rate viewer 324 may be configured to detect a marker in thedata corresponding to a segment of an advertisement break of a sessionplayed by the smart appliance (e.g., 308 a). The adaptive bit rateviewer 324 may be configured to map the marker to a percentage played ofthe advertisement in the session by the smart appliance (e.g., 308 a).The adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may be configured to reporting thepercentage played of the advertisement in the session by the smartappliance (e.g., 308 a) to at least one tracking element (e.g., 328 a).In an example, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may be furtherconfigured to alter the session manifest 402 to instruct an ADS (e.g.,304 a) or a CDN 306 to transmit code in the form of a document to asmart appliance (e.g., 308 a) to permit the smart appliance (e.g., 308a) to detect a marker indicative of a play time interval, and, inresponse, to permit the smart appliance (e.g., 308 a) to provide anindication to the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 of a proportion of anadvertisement played by the smart appliance (e.g., 308 a). In anotherexample, the MSO may distribute the code document to manufacturers ofthe smart appliances 308 a-308 n to permit a manufacturer to incorporatethe code into the overall executable code of the smart appliances 308a-308 n.

In an example, the information provided in the indication to betransmitted from the smart appliance (e.g., 308 a) to the adaptive bitrate viewer 324 may take the form of a string, e.g.,“#URL://router/UUID/device identifier or MAC address/time code” where“router” is an IPV4 or IPV6 address of the router 302, UUID may be theUUID of the ID3 tag inserted by the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 andreceived by the smart appliance (e.g., 308 a), “device identifier or MACidentifier” is an identity associated with a particular smart appliance(e.g., 308 a), such as a serial number of the smart appliance (e.g., 308a) or the MAC address (i.e., the media access control address) of thesmart appliance (e.g., 308 a) that effectively identifies a session of achannel played by the smart appliance (e.g., 308 a), and “time code”refers to a wall clock time or time stamp that may be, for example,synchronized broadcast time (e.g., wall clock time delayed by sevenseconds).

In an example, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may be furtherconfigured to respond to the data received from the smart appliance(e.g., 308 a) by mapping the fields of the data to correspondingelements stored in a database 326 to data to be reported to one or moretracking elements 328 a-328 n. The database 326 may comprise tables thatinclude UUIDs, the corresponding quartile, the device address or MACaddress, and the time code. The adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may beconfigured to map the incoming data to a corresponding ID3 tag. Fromeach unique ID3 tag, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may furtheridentify a resolution rate of the transport signal stream played as wellas whether there were any changes in resolution rate during playing ofan advertisement or content. The mapped information for reporting to atracking element (e.g., 328 a) may be the name of a tracking elementassociated with the received session, the session, the quartile played,the adaptive bit rate or resolution of the transport signal stream, andan associated time code.

In an example, while there may be a total of, for example, fifteen (15)unique identifiers or UUIDs, five for each transport stream resolutionrate, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may be configured to groupcorresponding received unique identifiers associated with a specificpercentile but of different frame rates for each transport streamtogether to identify a single percentile played (e.g., UUID1, UUID2,UUID3 for 0% played percentile, UUID4, UUID5, UUID6 for the 25%percentile played, etc.).

A tracking element (e.g., 328 a) may be associated with a local ornational programmer or network (e.g., 328 a, 328 b), an MSO (e.g., 328c), a local or national advertiser (e.g., 328 d, 328 e), a third partyverification system (328 n), or one or more of the ADSs (e.g., 304 a-304n). In an example, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may keep track ofthe data (e.g., the percentage played of each session) in the database326 for later retrieval in order to permit an owner of the server 302 tocharge an organization associated with a tracking element (e.g., 328 a)a fee based on the percentage of a session played.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method 800 forenabling reporting of a percentage of an advertisement playable by asmart appliance. The method 800 may be performed by a computer system300 of FIG. 3 and may comprise hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicatedlogic, programmable logic, microcode, etc.), software (e.g.,instructions run on a processing device), or a combination thereof. Inone example, the method 800 is performed by the adaptive bit rate viewer324 of the server 302 of FIG. 3.

As shown in FIG. 8, at block 805, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 ofthe server 302 receives metadata associated with an advertisement in atransport signal stream from an encoder 316. At block 810, the adaptivebit rate viewer 324 determines a length of the advertisement and a framerate of the transport signal stream based on the received metadata. Inanother example, the length of the advertisement and a frame rate of thetransport signal stream may be determined based on an analysis of thein-band transport signal stream itself rather than from out-of-bandmetadata associated with the transport signal stream.

At block 815, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 divides the advertisementinto at least one segment based on the length and the frame rate. Atblock 820, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 instructs the encoder 316 toinsert at least one marker into at least one frame of the advertisementcorresponding to the at least one segment of the transport signal streamto create at least one marked segment.

In an example, the at least one marked segment may be indicative of apercentage of the advertisement inserted into the advertisement breakplayable by a smart appliance (e.g., 308 a). The length of theadvertisement may be representative of a difference in time between alast frame of the advertisement and a first frame of the advertisement.A length of the at least one segment may be based on the frame rate. Thenumber of segments may be based on quartiles of percentage of anadvertisement playable by the smart appliance (e.g., 308 a).

In an embodiment, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may instruct theencoder 316 to insert the at least one marker (e.g., UUID1) on a perframe, per segment, per sub-segment, or per plurality of segments basis.The adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may instruct the encoder 316 to inserta different value for the at least one marker into each segment of theat least one segment. A specific segment may be proportional to apercentage of the advertisement playable by the smart appliance (e.g.,308 a). In an embodiment, when the frame rate changes duringtransmission of the advertisement, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 mayinstruct the encoder 316 to insert at least one different marker into atleast one frame of the advertisement corresponding to the at least onesegment. The adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may instruct the encoder 316to insert the at least one marker into at least one of a first frame ofa percentile, a last frame of a percentile, multiple but not all frameof a percentile, or throughout a percentile.

In one embodiment, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may group aplurality of markers associated with a specific percentile but ofdifferent frame rates for each transport stream together for identifyinga single percentile played.

In one example, the marker may be an ID3 tag (e.g., 408 a). In anexample, the ID3 tag (e.g., 408 a) may comprise a unique identifier(e.g., UUID1) indicative of a percentage of an advertisement insertedinto the advertisement break playable by the smart appliance (e.g., 308a). In an example, the unique identifier (e.g., UUID1) may be auniversal unique identifier (UUID). The adaptive bit rate viewer 324 mayinstruct the encoder 324 to insert the ID3 tag into a data track orfundamental track of the transport signal stream.

In an embodiment, the at least one ID3 tag (e.g., UUID5) assigned to alast segment may be operable to disable fast forwarding in the smartappliance (e.g., 308 a). The at least one ID3 tag (e.g., UUID1) assignedto a first segment may be operable to enable fast forwarding in thesmart appliance (e.g., 308 a).

In another example, the marker may be encoded into XML metadata in asparse track of the transport signal stream.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method 900 forreporting a percentage of an advertisement that has been played by asmart appliance. The method 800 may be performed by a computer system300 of FIG. 3 and may comprise hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicatedlogic, programmable logic, microcode, etc.), software (e.g.,instructions run on a processing device), or a combination thereof. Inone example, the method 800 is performed by the adaptive bit rate viewer324 of the server 302 of FIG. 3.

As shown in FIG. 9, at block 905, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 ofthe server 302 receives data from a smart appliance (e.g., 308 a). Inone embodiment, the received data may be in the form of a universalresource locator (URL). The URL may comprise at least one of a universalunique identifier indicative of the percentage of the advertisementplayed, a device identifier or MAC identifier indicative of a specificsession, and a time stamp corresponding to a synchronized broadcasttime.

At block 910, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 detects a marker in thedata corresponding to a segment of an advertisement of a session playedby the smart appliance (e.g., 308 a).

In an embodiment, the detected marker may differ on a per frame, persegment, per sub-segment, or per plurality of segments basis. Thedetected marker may differ on a per percentile basis of theadvertisement played by the smart appliance (e.g., 308 a).

The detected marker may differ on a per frame rate or session resolutionof the advertisement played by the smart appliance (e.g., 308 a). Themarker may be detected for one of a first frame of a percentile, a lastframe of a percentile, multiple but not all frame of a percentile, orthroughout a percentile. The detected marker may be indicative of aframe rate or resolution of a segment of the session.

In an embodiment, the marker may comprise an ID3 tag. The ID3 tag maycomprise a unique identifier indicative of the percentage of anadvertisement playable by a smart appliance (e.g., 308 a). The uniqueidentifier may be a universal unique identifier (UUID) (which, in anexample, may be the UUID passed from the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 toidentify the segment played).

At block 915, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 maps the marker to apercentage played of the advertisement in the session by the smartappliance (e.g., 308 a). In one example, the adaptive bit rate viewer324 maps fields of the marker in the database 326 into a format forreporting to the one or more of the tracking elements 328 a-328 n. Thedatabase 326 may comprise tables that include UUIDs, the correspondingquartile, and the URL. The adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may map thedetected marker to a corresponding ID3 tag. The mapped information forreporting to a tracking element (e.g., 328 a) may be the name of atracking element associated with the received session, the session, thequartile played, and an associated time code (a time stamp correspondingto a synchronized broadcast time (e.g., wall clock time delayed by sevenseconds).

When the detected marker is indicative of a frame rate or resolution ofa segment of the session, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may map thedetected marker to a same percentage played but of a different framerate or session resolution. The adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may group aplurality of markers associated with a specific percentile but ofdifferent frame rates corresponding to the session together foridentifying a single percentile played.

At block 920, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 reports the percentageplayed of the advertisement in the session by the smart appliance to atleast one tracking element (e.g., 328 a). The tracking element (e.g.,328 a) may be associated with a local or national programmer or network,an MSO, a local or national advertiser, a third party verificationsystem, or one or more advertisement decision services 304 a-304 n.

In an example, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may keep track of thedata (e.g., the percentage played of each session) in the database 326for later retrieval in order to permit an owner of the server 302 tocharge an organization associated with the tracking element (e.g., 328a) a fee based on the percentage of a session played. In an embodiment,the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may directly keep track of trackingfees to be charged to an organization associated with the trackingelement based on the percentage of an advertisement played.

In one embodiment, the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may transmit code tothe smart appliance to detect the marker and to provide the indicationto the server 302 in response to the smart appliance (e.g., 308 a)detecting the marker. To accomplish this, the adaptive bit rate viewer324 may instruct an advertisement decision service (e.g., 304 a) toinsert the code into at least a first segment of a session.

In another example, the MSO may distribute the code document to themanufacturers of the smart appliances 328 a-328 n to permit amanufacturer to incorporate the code into the overall executable code ofthe smart appliances 328 a-328 n. Code for enabling or disabling fastforwarding may be included in the code document.

FIG. 10 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine in theexample form of a computer system 1000 within which a set ofinstructions, for causing the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein, may be executed. In some examples, themachine may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines in a LAN,an intranet, an extranet, or the Internet. The machine may operate inthe capacity of a server machine in client-server network environment.The machine may be a personal computer (PC), a set-top box (STB), aserver, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable ofexecuting a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specifyactions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only a singlemachine is illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken toinclude any collection of machines that individually or jointly executea set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more ofthe methodologies discussed herein.

The example computer system 1000 includes a processing device(processor) 1002, a main memory 1004 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM),flash memory, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) such as synchronousDRAM (SDRAM)), a static memory 1006 (e.g., flash memory, static randomaccess memory (SRAM)), and a data storage device 1016, which communicatewith each other via a bus 1008.

Processor 1002 represents one or more general-purpose processing devicessuch as a microprocessor, central processing unit, or the like. Moreparticularly, the processor 1002 may be a complex instruction setcomputing (CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction set computing(RISC) microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor,or a processor implementing other instruction sets or processorsimplementing a combination of instruction sets. The processor 1002 mayalso be one or more special-purpose processing devices such as anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmablegate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP), network processor,or the like. The adaptive bit rate viewer 324 shown in FIG. 3 may beexecuted by processor 1002 configured to perform the operations andsteps discussed herein.

The computer system 1000 may further include a network interface device1022. The computer system 1000 also may include a video display unit1010 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode ray tube (CRT)),an alphanumeric input device 1012 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor controldevice 1014 (e.g., a mouse), and a signal generation device 1020 (e.g.,a speaker).

A drive unit 1016 may include a computer-readable medium 1024 on whichis stored one or more sets of instructions (e.g., instructions of theadaptive bit rate viewer 324) embodying any one or more of themethodologies or functions described herein. The instructions of theadaptive bit rate viewer 324 may also reside, completely or at leastpartially, within the main memory 1004 and/or within the processor 1002during execution thereof by the computer system 1000, the main memory1004 and the processor 1002 also constituting computer-readable media.The instructions of the adaptive bit rate viewer 324 may further betransmitted or received over a network via the network interface device1022.

While the computer-readable storage medium 1024 is shown in an exampleto be a single medium, the term “computer-readable storage medium”should be taken to include a single non-transitory medium or multiplenon-transitory media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database,and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets ofinstructions. The term “computer-readable storage medium” shall also betaken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding orcarrying a set of instructions for execution by the machine and thatcause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of thepresent disclosure. The term “computer-readable storage medium” shallaccordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-statememories, optical media, and magnetic media.

In the above description, numerous details are set forth. It isapparent, however, to one of ordinary skill in the art having thebenefit of this disclosure, that examples of the disclosure may bepracticed without these specific details. In some instances, well-knownstructures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than indetail, in order to avoid obscuring the description.

Some portions of the detailed description are presented in terms ofalgorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bitswithin a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desiredresult. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physicalquantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take theform of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It hasproven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, torefer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters,terms, numbers, or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the above discussion, itis appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “receiving”, “writing”, “maintaining”, or the like, referto the actions and processes of a computer system, or similar electroniccomputing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented asphysical (e.g., electronic) quantities within the computer system'sregisters and memories into other data similarly represented as physicalquantities within the computer system memories or registers or othersuch information storage, transmission or display devices.

Examples of the disclosure also relate to an apparatus for performingthe operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed forthe required purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium, such as, but not limited to, any type of diskincluding floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-opticaldisks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs,EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable forstoring electronic instructions.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct a more specializedapparatus to perform the required method steps. Example structure for avariety of these systems appears from the description herein. Inaddition, the present disclosure is not described with reference to anyparticular programming language. It will be appreciated that a varietyof programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of thedisclosure as described herein.

It is to be understood that the above description is intended to beillustrative, and not restrictive. Many other examples will be apparentto those of skill in the art upon reading and understanding the abovedescription. The scope of the disclosure should, therefore, bedetermined with reference to the appended claims, along with the fullscope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: receiving, by a server,metadata associated with an advertisement in a transport signal streamfrom an encode, the metadata identifying a specified frame of thetransport signal stream corresponding to a point in time of theadvertisement, instructing an encoder, by a server, to insert a markerinto the specified frame of the transport signal stream, the markeridentifying the point in time of the advertisement; receiving, by theserver, data from a smart appliance; detecting, by the server, themarker in the data; identifying, by the server, the marker as thespecified frame of the transport signal stream played by the smartappliance; mapping, by the server, the marker to the identified point intime of the advertisement.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprisingmapping, by the server, the marker to a total percentage of theadvertisement played by the smart appliance in view of the identifiedpoint in time of the advertisement.
 3. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising reporting, by the server, the total percentage of theadvertisement played by the smart appliance to a tracking element. 4.The method of claim 3, further comprising charging an organizationassociated with the tracking element a fee based on the percentage of anadvertisement played.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprisinginstructing the encoder to insert the marker into the specified frame ofthe transport signal stream on a per frame, per segment, persub-segment, or per plurality of segments basis.
 6. The method of claim1, further comprising instructing the encoder to insert differentmarkers into corresponding frames in the transport signal streamcorresponding to different points in time of the advertisement.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the different points in time of theadvertisement correspond to quartiles of an advertisement playable bythe smart appliance.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprisinginstructing the encoder to insert the marker into at least one of afirst frame of a percentile, a last frame of a percentile, multiple butnot all frame of a percentile, or throughout a percentile.
 9. The methodof claim 1, wherein the marker comprises an ID3 tag.
 10. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the ID3 tag comprises a unique identifier indicative ofthe identified point in time of the advertisement playable by the smartappliance.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the unique identifier isa universal unique identifier (UUID).
 12. The method of claim 9, whereinthe ID3 tag is inserted into a data track or a fundamental track of thetransport signal stream.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiveddata is in the form of a universal resource locator (URL).
 14. Themethod of claim 13, wherein the universal resource locator comprises atleast one of a universal unique identifier corresponding to theidentified point in time of the advertisement played by the smartappliance, a device identifier or MAC identifier indicative of aspecific session, or a time stamp corresponding to a synchronizedbroadcast time.
 15. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior toinstructing the encoder to insert the marker, instructing the encoder bythe server to transmit code to the smart appliance to permit the smartappliance to detect the marker and to permit the smart appliance toreport the marker to the server.
 16. The method of claim 15, furthercomprising instructing, by the server, an advertisement decision serviceto insert the code into at least a first segment of a session.
 17. Asystem, comprising: a memory; a server, coupled to the memory, theserver to: receive metadata associated with an advertisement in atransport signal stream from an encode, the metadata identifying aspecified frame of the transport signal stream corresponding to a pointin time of the advertisement, instruct an encoder to insert a markerinto the specified frame of the transport signal stream, the markeridentifying the point in time of the advertisement; receive data from asmart appliance; detect the marker in the data; identify the marker asthe specified frame of the transport signal stream played by the smartappliance; map the marker to the identified point in time of theadvertisement.
 18. The system of claim 17, further comprising mappingthe marker to a total percentage of the advertisement played by thesmart appliance in view of the identified point in time of theadvertisement.
 19. The system of claim 18, further comprising reportingthe total percentage of the advertisement played by the smart applianceto a tracking element.
 20. A non-transitory computer readable storagemedium including instructions that, when executed by a server, causesthe server to perform operations, comprising: receiving, by the server,metadata associated with an advertisement in a transport signal streamfrom an encode, the metadata identifying a specified frame of thetransport signal stream corresponding to a point in time of theadvertisement, instructing an encoder, by a server, to insert a markerinto the specified frame of the transport signal stream, the markeridentifying the point in time of the advertisement; receiving, by theserver, data from a smart appliance; detecting, by the server, themarker in the data; identifying, by the server, the marker as thespecified frame of the transport signal stream played by the smartappliance; mapping, by the server, the marker to the identified point intime of the advertisement.
 21. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 20, further comprising mapping, by the server,the marker to a total percentage of the advertisement played by thesmart appliance in view of the identified point in time of theadvertisement.
 22. The non-transitory computer readable storage mediumof claim 21, further comprising reporting, by the server, the totalpercentage of the advertisement played by the smart appliance to atracking element.